Cupsmith's bookshelf

A cup of coffee and a good read are pretty unbeatable in our view. We think everyone should spend more time with their nose in a cracking book, less time careering around at breakneck speed.

Every month we'll share some brilliant book reviews sent to us by you chaps. Got a book you'd love to tell us about? Do get in touch, we'd love to hear from you. And if we publish your review on our site we'll send you a free bag of freshly roasted coffee to say thank you.

Have a butchers at our book reviews below...

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple"If you haven't read a book by Dorothy Whipple, I urge you to. And the best one to start with is this one, which just happens to be her last one. It's a beautiful read from start to finish, and yet another glorious member of the Persephone Books catalogue. Written in 1953, the book follows the unravelling of a 20 year marriage when a young French girl arrives into the family household. The characterisation is sublime and as in all her novels, Whipple writes with such delicacy and poise that even the most mundane moment is one of grace and perception and you find yourself longing to turn the page and read on." Review by Emma

To win a copy of Someone at a Distance or other titles by Persephone books , click here.

Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami"Much to my surprise, this is now my favorite Murakami book. It's taken many years Murakami to supplant Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World in my affections, but he's done it. Murakami is playing with many of the same themes that have made me love his work: the pervasive feel of unreality, the vague but persistent sense of alienation, the movement between two worlds. This is Murakami with an emotional depth that I don't I've seen before, and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki is a more profound and (ahem) colorful book because of it."Review by Jeff Van Campen